Energy watchdog Ofgem gets electricity for its offices at HALF the price ordinary British families pay
The electricity deal would wipe hundreds of pounds off energy bills – if everybody was allowed to sign up
THE nation’s energy watchdog has bagged a rock bottom electricity tariff that is around HALF the price that normal households are paying for their power.
Ofgem, which was set up fight for the consumer against the energy giants, has an electricity deal that would wipe hundreds of pounds off energy bills – if everybody was allowed to sign up.
The regulator, which has come in for criticism for being too soft on the energy giants, pays just 7p per unit for electricity during the day and just 6p at night.
Most of its customers will be on tariffs where their electricity costs are at least double the deal the regulator has managed to corner for itself.
Its cheap power comes through a Government contract negotiated by the Crown Commercial Services.
Despite having a deal which it admits is “far better” than the marketplace can offer, the watchdog is still paying out almost £20,000-per-month for its electricity to EDF, a company it has fined for a string of offences against customers.
A spokesman said: “Energy contracts are negotiated by government on our behalf.”
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, praised it for “keeping costs down”.
Ofgem, which uses French-owned EDF for the supply of electricity to its offices in Westminster, in London, has repeatedly rapped the same company for ripping off electricity consumers and ordered it to pay back millions into customers’ accounts.
In its latest breach in 2014, EDF was ordered to pay back £3 million to affected customers after problems in the way it dealt with complaints were uncovered by the regulator.
Just two years earlier it was made to pay back £4.5 million to consumers after misleading sales claims were exposed in an Ofgem investigation.
The firm were also formally rapped by the watchdog in 2011 where it was ordered to pay back £200,000 and in 2007 when it was fined £2million for not connecting up people to the network quickly enough.
Yet the same electricity company is responsible for powering the London main office of the regulator as well as its base in Glasgow.
In total last year the watchdog paid out £219,703 to EDF for electricity in both offices, a rise on the previous year’s bill of £26,854, a massive 14 percent increase.